A definition of underlying marketing

by Eric D. (05/01/2017)

Underlying or
latent marketing (underlying marketing may be abbreviated to undmark) is a concept, a research axis and an area of action that require an active interest in marketing and communication at the
level of the industries and firms most distanced from these issues. Basically underlying marketing could remain purely theoretical or result in practical applications, which needs to be verified.
It all depends on what we consider the objectives to be. It’s always worth remembering that businesses operating in the marketplace seek higher profit margins, even though the complexities of
trade comprise commercial, financial, accounting and economic elements, but also legal, historical, anthropological, cultural, psychological, ethical, environmental and other aspects, to name
only the principal factors involved in this approach.

Undmark is the
result of a paradoxical process that is as follows: on the one hand, everybody maintains that it’s important to be aware of how to market oneself, which leads to marketing and communication,
sometimes without realizing it; on the other hand, it has been noted that some sectors of activity manage marketing and communication, which can be defined as the strategy to prepare businesses
for market and how we deal with other persons when something is sold, with exceptional ease, and this isn’t the case everywhere. When we want to have more time for marketing and communication in
difficult sectors, we have to ask how we deal with the arguments for receiving economic profits from marketing and communication. Indeed, this is the link between the concept (as a mental
elaboration and a language production), the research axis (as links between theory and practice) and the area of action (as actual outcomes).

In the face of
current economic uncertainty, to meet the needs of a changing labor market, it appears that flexibility, mobility and transversality are needed. Contracts whose value fluctuate and the experience
of challenging are actually gaining some ground. Officers will become employees again as economic conditions dictate, and we have identified a growing gap between the specific requirements of our
time and the time when people worked their entire life in one profession, which was taken as a matter of course. Employees have a chance to enrich themselves through ongoing learning, and those
who would like their career to take a new direction need to learn how to work for hour after hour and, at the same time, attend training, pass appropriate exams and attain appropriate levels of
professional certification. It’s an opportunity to reflect on solutions based on employability.

Underlying
marketing is a potential response to the same basic issue of employability, which should be considered. With evolution, good creative thinking skills are increasingly pertinent in today’s
environment in order to allow businesses to discover new markets. We will need this imagination to achieve certain outcomes going spectacularly through a paradigmatic shift on a large scale, as
with the Internet, which still contributes to stimulating creativity and innovation on a daily basis in a world of accelerating technological developments. Some, however, will also require
greater discretion, niche product marketing, precision, patience and perseverance. Difficulties are to be expected, since we have to overcome the resistance at the business line level when, even
in good times, developments take place without any consultation whatsoever with marketing and communication departments.

If undmark had
to be a purely theoretical view, it would only require a description of the various business areas and a ranking system for the trades concerned to show which other jobs outside marketing are
closest to marketing as such, in descending order of importance. But one has to search beyond these evidences to ask oneself about the relationship between skills, a lack of strategy, marketing,
communication and the need to raise more awareness. The result of these considerations linked with economic studies would be unexpected. What is the purpose? The question still remains. Marketing
and communication make changes in relational matters, even though these fields are usually defined in terms of areas of macroeconomic performance, economic fundamentals, global markets, mass
consumption and large production units in the light of obvious historical considerations. Yet we are all concerned, and it’s also easy to see that this is the case in everyday life. Marketing and
communication serve to teach us that we can work on ourselves, improve our communication skills, develop better working relationships and better enjoy our free time.

Does this mean
that marketing and communication must always be used? This is already happening. We just need to open our eyes. This sometimes requires a great deal of work, because if we want to convince those
who remain skeptical and get them interested in marketing and communication, this implies that, as in any other relational approach, we must learn about others, the way they think, say and do
things as well as their customary working context, were they can feel comfortable, and destabilizing factors for good or ill. It appears to mean different things to different people, but their
knowledge of their occupation leaves room for interpretation, with mastering their skills on one side and a certain uneasiness on the other, as it’s often possible to sense some feeling of
discouragement. We must take responsibility for our choices, even with the loss of a specific campaign, and we believe in trust and discretion. Nevertheless, when problems arise and work
situations require more elaborate responses, the answer may lie in latent marketing.

No matter
where we go, from the moment that there’s a question of marketing and communication, we have to adapt accordingly. This means we increase the odds of inspiring others to do the same. A middle
ground must be created. As an extension of sales, we can, for instance, move towards marketing if we have been real estate sales representatives, in which case this helps us develop our
management skills. Now we can select an industry sector. There are many possibilities. As an extension of real estate, the various areas connected with building trade and civil engineering have
the potential to provide more information on the concrete aspects of real estate. The construction sector is a huge area. Activities concerning quarrying of stone, gravel and aggregates seem
distant from marketing. The same goes for site offices. We need a framework that’s going to make it happen, which lies somewhere between upstream markets (quarrying) and downstream markets
(construction), namely the building materials trade, and thus DIY stores.

But it’s also
true that major cement producers on the one hand and on the other hand motorway concessions have a marketing department, and this is simply because this is consistent with companies’ practical
needs, which, contrary to expectations, aren’t determined by the nature of one’s work. As for smaller projects, such as new homes within subdivisions, there are clear problems of communication
between masons and carpenters, which implies that there are always inadequate housing, disappointed customers and a considerable waste of time and money, in spite of the fact that this could be
avoided through improved communication between masons and carpenters. For each opportunity for improvement the alternatives that exist must be studied, in the same way as stones are extracted.
The deeper we go into the situation and focus on applying our knowledge, the greater the chances of emphasizing the fact that, contrary to what one might think, marketing and communication aren’t
nonexistent, but dormant, latent, underlying, undmark.